NBC has released a statement saying, “we never asked to double the wholesale price for our TV shows. In fact, our negotiations were centered on our request for flexibility in wholesale pricing, including the ability to package shows together in ways that could make our content even more attractive for consumers. In addition we asked Apple to take concrete steps to protect content from piracy, since it is estimated that the typical iPod contains significant amount of illegally downloaded material.”
Apple and NBC have decided to settle the iTunes agreement in pressroom rather than boardroom.

iLounge posted details about Uniea’s U-Suit, a new iPod case for rumored iPod Nano (video) that will be announced by Apple on September 5th. The case is a hard protective leather case for the new unannounced iPod. If you consider the case design the new iPod Nano will have a 2.3” screen, click wheel and measure about 2.5” X 2” (almost a square). The case has hard plastic interior with scratch resistant inner lining. The case will cost $30. Apple has almost confirmed the new iPod design when their legal team asked many website to remove the leaked iPod photos.

Shure has added new earphone to its SE series. The SE110 features Balanced MicroSpeakers for rich and optimized audio experience. The sound isolating design blocks over 90% of ambient noise. To ensure perfect fit, Shure bundles three different sizes of foam and flexible rubber tips. The SE110 works with the company’s recent Music Phone Adapter for iPhone and Push-to-hear external microphone. The earphones will be available in September for $119 (you will be able to get it online for $99).

Amazon will finally launch their Online MP3 Music Store next month. To compete with iTunes, Amazon will sell DRM free music from Universal for $0.99 where as iTunes sells DRM free music for $1.29. Amazon will also offer variable rate pricing for songs (bad for consumer and good for record companies). Certain back catalog tracks would be offered at 89 cents and the new releases will cost more. Larger labels are said to object to the low price for current music and are reportedly still in negotiations that may push back the opening of the store.

Sharp today showed prototype of 3.5” touchscreen display with Multi-touch functionality (like the iPhone). The big news about this display is that it can also perform scanning functions; a future device could include a business card reader or automatically scan data codes found on packaging. Mass production of this 1mm thick display will start in spring 2008. Initially the display will be aimed at smartphone and digital camera market but in future screen up to 12” would be available for use in Notebook computer or UMPC.

New York Post Reports that Apple will offer ringtone service, which would allow users to turn almost any song sold or previously purchased through iTunes into a ringtone for a additional fee. The best part of this offer is that user will be able to select any part of the song they want as their ringtones. Wireless carriers normally sell ringtones for about $1.99, if Apple is able to sell both the ringtone and the song for $1.99 it would be a deal. Lets wait and see what Apple announces on Wednesday. And Yes Universal Music won’t participate in the offering (what do you expect from Universal).

Via New York Post

Yesterday NBC said that it wouldn’t extend its contract with iTunes, as Apple is not ready to change their pricing policies. NBC’s agreement with Apple will end in December. The question then was would Apple keep selling NBC TV shows like they are doing with Universal Music. NBC is a Universal groups company so it looked like they will keep doing the same thing they did with music. But Apple has had it with Universal Group and it is pulling the plug on NBC in September rather than waiting till December. According to the statement released by Apple it will not be selling NBC television shows for the upcoming television season on its online iTunes Store. The move follows NBC's decision to not renew its agreement with iTunes after Apple declined to pay more than double the wholesale price for each NBC TV episode, which would have resulted in the retail price to consumers increasing to $4.99 per episode from the current $1.99. Apple's agreement with NBC ends in December. Since NBC would withdraw their shows in the middle of the television season, Apple has decided to not offer NBC TV shows for the upcoming television season beginning in September.
"We are disappointed to see NBC leave iTunes because we would not agree to their dramatic price increase," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes. "We hope they will change their minds and offer their TV shows to the tens of millions of iTunes customers."
In May when Apple and Universal Music were in talks for extending their agreement, it failed because Apple was not ready to increase the price of newly released songs from $0.99 and Universal wanted to charge more for newly released songs. But since iTunes has more than 80% market share in online music business and are the 3rd biggest reseller after Wal-Mart and Best Buy, Universal wasn’t able to do much. Though Universal Music didn’t sign the agreement with Apple, they kept selling their music through iTunes. Now with this NBC agreement problem it looks like Universal is getting too greedy because no way am I going to pay $5 for one episode of a TV show.

The DMC-L10 is Panasonic’s first DSLR with Face Detection, the system can detect up to 15 human faces simultaneously. The Face detection system in combination with intelligent ISO control setting, which measure the movement of the subject and sets the ISO level accordingly, helps give consumers blur-free image. The camera has a 10.1-megapixel sensor with Supersonic Wave Filter system that prevents dust from collecting on the sensor. The DMC-L10 adopts advanced hybrid AF system, which gives user the option to choose either the phase difference AF system or the contrast AF. While in manual mode the user can enlarge part of the subject on LCD and also freely move the magnified area for easy framing. The DMC-L10 is aimed at prosumers who are transitioning from a compact digital camera to DSLR. The DMC-L10 comes with LEICA D VARIO-ELMAR 14- 50mm / F3.8-5.6 / MEGA O.I.S. lens which has optical image stabilization. The camera will be available in October for $1299.

Via Gizmodo

According to LG the new Design Art Series is all about design. They announced two LCD TV series LF75 and LB75 in Design Art Series. The LF75 comes in 37”, 42”, 47”, and 52” at 1080p and has a contrast ratio of 10,000:1. The LB75 comes in 26” and 32” at 720p/1080i and has 8,000:1 contrast ratio. All the LCD TVs have three HDMI inputs, XD imaging engine and Intelligent Eye technology, which optimizes brightness and contrast according to ambient light. The speakers are hidden behind a special film that keep them out of sight without affecting the sound. Pricing and availability is not known.

LG said at IFA that starting from September 1st all the LCD monitors produced in their fabs will have a contrast ratio of 5000:1. LG will be using Digital Fine Contrast technology to get the results. LG will launch two LCD monitors based on this technology the L227WT and L206WU. The L227WT will be a 22” monitor targeted at gamers and graphic designer. The monitor will reproduce 100% of the NTSC color spectrum and will have a 2ms response time. It will be available in November and price is yet not known. The second monitor 20” L206WU lets you connect up to six monitors at once via USB and it has a 2ms response time. It will be available in October and price is not known.

The HS101 is 1.7 pound LED DLP projector, which has a contrast ratio of 2000:1. The project has 800 X 600 resolution and 4:3 aspect ratio. The LED is rated for 20,000 hours. The project has DV, D-sub and DVI input and will be available for 799 EUR ($1090 US).

Nikon announced L14 and L15 cameras based on EXPEED image processor. Both the cameras have red-eye correction, D-lighting exposure correction, face recognition, 3X optical zoom and ISO up to 1000. The difference between the two cameras are that the L14 has 7-megapixel and 2.4”screen where are L15 has 8-megapixel and 2.8” screen. The L14 will cost $150 and the L15 will cost $180. Both cameras will be available in September.

This 1080p DLP projector is based on .95” DMD chip. It features 24 frames per second film mode. It has 2000 hours, 300W and 1000 lumens bulb that has contrast ratio of 10,000:1. Sp-A800B comes with two HDMI, one RGM, Two Component, S-Video and RS232. Date of availability and price is not known.

Intel has released more technical details about its system-on-a-chip (SoC) processor called Tolapai. Tolapai will have 600MHz, 1GHz and 1.2GHz processors and each processor will have 148 million transistors. The TDP will be in range of 13 to 20 watts and the processors will be based on 65nm process. Intel envisions to use the processor in networking related embedded applications.

You can get more details about the processor on Ars Technica

According to Sony NWZ-S610 was designed with a younger demographic in mind. The player has 1.8” QVGA screen and includes FM tuner. The player has battery life of 9 hours for video and 33 hours for music. It support WMA, MP3, AAC, JPEG (image) and MPEG-4 (video) formats. The 2GB player comes in black, pink, red and silver colors and costs $120. The 4GB player comes in same colors as 2GB but will cost $160. The 8GB player comes in just black color and costs $210.

The NWZ-A810 is Sony’s first PMP in US that can play video also. The NWZ-A810 has 2” QVGA LCD screen and support WMA, AAC and MP3 audio formats. The player also supports JPEG for photos and MPEG-4 (H.264/AVC) for video. The battery life on the player is 8 hours for video and 33 hours for music. The 2GB player comes in white, pink, black, blue and silver colors and will cost $140. The 4GB player comes in white, pink, black and silver colors and will cost $180. The 8GB player comes in just Black and Sliver and will cost $230. Why can’t they offer all the colors in all the capacities?

According to Sanyo Xacti DMX-HD1000 is world’s smallest camcorder that can record 1080p. The camcorder records in HD/MPEG-4 AVC codec and can shoot for up to 2 hours on a single charge. It can also take 8-megapixel stills and has 10X optical zoom. Other features on the camcorder are 2.7” screen, HDMI out, SDHC support and 1/2.5 inch CMOS sensor. The camcorder can record 1 hour and 25 minutes of full HD recording on 8GB SDHC card. The camcorder will be available in Japan in September for about $1000.

The Kodak EASYSHARE V1253 and V1233 are both 12-megapixel cameras with 3X zoom, face detection technology, image stabilization, and can shoot 720p video (30fps). The V1253 has 3.1” LCD screen and will cost $299 where as the V1233 has 2.5” LCD screen and will cost $249. Both the cameras are available now in retail stores. The high-zoom EASYSHARE Z812 is an 8-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization, ISO up to 3200, face detection technology, smart scene mode and 12x optical zoom. The camera is available now for $299.
Kodak also announced HDTV Dock, which connects to your HDTV for viewing pictures from Kodak cameras, SD cards and USB drives. The Dock comes with remote control to manage the slideshow. The HDTV Dock will be available in October for $99. The 10” digital picture frame SV1011 was also announced. The frame has 16:9 aspect ratio and 800 X 480 resolution. The frame has 128MB memory for storing image or video. The SV1011 will cost $199 and is available now.

The P5100 is an update to P5000 and the camera employs the new EXPEED image processor. The camera has 12.1-megapixel sensor, 3.5X zoom, Optical image stabilization, ISO up to 3200 (at 5-megapixel), 2.5” LCD screen, manual focus, 26 shooting modes and 5 white balance settings. The camera supports SDHC and can records movie at 30 frames per seconds. The camera has in-built distortion correction which works real time to correct the live preview as well as stored images. The camera will be available in September for 299 pounds.

The Coolpix P50 is a compact digital camera aimed at photographers after bit more control. The camera has 8.1-megapixel sensor, software stabilization, ISO up to 2000, 3.6X zoom, 2.4” LCD screen, 21 shooting modes, Manual focus and EXPEED image processor. The camera will be available in September for 199 pounds. There will be two-color choices black or silver.

The second metal-bodied compact Nikon with image-stabilized lens is the S700. The camera has 12-megapixel sensor, 3x zoom, EXPEED image processor, 2.7” anti reflective screen, ISO up to 3200, 21 shooting modes and SDHC card slot. The S700 power-up with in 0.9 seconds and has shutter release time lag of 0.005 seconds. The camera will be available in fourth quarter for 279 pounds.

Nikon claims that COOLPIX S510 is world’s smallest digital camera with optical image stabilization. The camera has 8.1-megapixel sensor, EXPEED image processor, ISO up to 2000, 2.5” anti-reflective screen, 3X zoom, 21 shooting modes and SDHC card slot. The power-up time is 0.7 second and Nikon claims that it’s the fastest in world for a compact camera. There are three colors choices silver, pink and black. The camera will be available in September for 199 pounds.

Nikon has released two new S-series cameras the S51c and the S51. The two cameras are exactly same with only one difference, the S51c, which is priced at 229 pounds has WiFi connectivity and the S51, which is priced at 199 pounds is without WiFi. The other features on both the cameras are 8.1-megapixel sensor, 3x zoom, 3” anti-reflective screen, EXPEED digital image processor, SDHC card slot, ISO up to 1600 and VR-stabilized optics. The cameras will be available in September.

Apple will announce new Ringtone feature for iPhone users. AlleyInsider claims that their source says, “user will be able to make ringtones out of the songs they’ve already purchased from iTunes and Universal songs won’t be available for this feature. New line of iPods will also be introduced.” Since the iPhone was first announced in January there have been rumors that Apple will sell ringtones through its iTunes Store and iPhone user can add new ringtones. The other rumor which is making rounds is that  Apple will add HD content and movie rental service to iTunes. The reason behind this rumor is the fact that Akamai, Apple's Internet content partner, has announced that it is adding HD video to its internet distribution offerings. Few more rumors added to the list of rumors for upcoming Apple event.

Rumor mill has been in full force since news about the Apple’s event went public. Everything has been speculated from iPod nano to Macbook Slim to iPhone nano. The latest rumor is about wireless iTunes store that will allow the music to be downloaded directly to the iPhone or upcoming wireless iPods (rumor). We will definitely see over the air download feature in iTunes but will it be released of September 5th, I am not at all sure about that. The only thing certain about the upcoming Apple’s event is that new iPods will be released.

Emtec today announced its new Movie Cube-R Multimedia hard drive. You can get up to 500GB of storage space and the price starts at about $300 for 160GB hard drive. The Movie Cube-R boasts video-in and video-out ports to hook up your TV directly to the drive. You can view and records content on the drive without connecting it to a computer. It also has USB and Ethernet support for hook-up to computer or your network. The audio formats supported by the drive are MP3, WMA and OGG. Video formats supported are MPEG-2, MPEG-4, Divx and Xvid.

Via Engadget

Palm has released Windows Mobile 6 Pro update for Treo 750/750v customers with Windows Mobile 5 OS. Palm advises not to update if you are using Blackberry Connect service as the service is not supported and once you have installed the update you can’t revert to Windows Mobile 5. Palm has provided detailed information and installation instructions on it website here.

Nokia released some cool new mobile phones today and also showed off their concept for future iPhone killer. The problem with the concept is that it looks more like an iPhone-clone than a killer. This concept will be released in about a year and looks almost like the present iPhone (Nokia said hardware is not real and its just a UI demo). The second problem with the concept is that by the time Nokia releases this phone Steve Jobs would have given a Keynote for iPhone 2.0. The truth is that no mobile phone maker has a UI even close to what iPhone UI has and every company wants you to wait till they catch-up with Apple. This is the same thing that happened in the MP3 player market. The biggest question is why would I wait one year for a concept phone, which is vaporware right now when I can get a solid product like an iPhone.

A sub-$200 player will definitely be a plus in the on going format war between the two High-Def formats. Venturer upcoming HD DVD player is the first sub-$200 High-Def player and is almost half the price of cheapest available Blu-ray player. This Chinese made HD DVD player has 1080i support, Dolby TrueHD and HDMI output. Even though Blu-ray is out selling HD DVD right now, but a Sub-$200 player can change the equation very soon (wake-up blu-ray).

Sony has stopped the production of 60GB PS3’s and only retail supply of the machine remains. Sony’s representative said “we no longer have any inventory in SCEA warehouses. All inventory has been purchased and shipped to retailers. We won’t be making any further announcements regarding our PS3 model hardware strategy in North America until the 60Gb model is exhausted and market conditions are evaluated.” Previously Sony had speculated that they may also reduce the price of 80GB PS3 from $599 to $499. But by confirming end of supply of 60GB PS3, Sony has almost confirmed that as soon as 60GB model is exhausted, there will be a definite price drop for 80GB PS3 model.

Nokia’s Music store is part of its Ovi initiative of online mobile services. Ovi initiative includes Nokia Music Store, N-Gage, Nokia Maps and all future Nokia Internet services, which it will announce. The Nokia Music Store service will go live in selected European countries by end of this year. The Music Store will offer 192Kbps WMA (DRM protected) tracks from a catalog that Nokia claims will contain millions of songs when the music store is launched. Music shopping can be done both on a desktop computer as well as on compatible Nokia phones like N81 and N95. For other Nokia handsets you can sync the phone by connecting to the computer. The cost of single song will be 1EUR ($1.37) and the cost of complete albums will be 10EUR ($13.70). You can have subscription service for 10EUR/month that will offer unlimited streaming playback to complete music catalog.

LG’s new touchscreen smart phone based on Windows mobile 6 will be launched in Europe by end of this year. The phone has a 2” touchscreen, HSDPA (European version), 2-megapixel camera, MP3 player and video calling. The phone is just 12.8mm thick and looks really sexy. The cost is yet not known.

According to Nokia N95 is the world’s greatest multimedia computer. The new N95i has a 5-megapixel camera, 8GB onboard memory, 2.8” QVGA display, A-GPS, WLAN, HSDPA and Xenon flash. The phone has 30% better battery life then previous N95. The phone will be available in fourth quarter for Euro 560 ($750). The phone won’t support US HSDPA band. But don’t worry Nokia is releasing US N95 version also which will work on AT&T’s HSDPA. Main problem with the phone is it looks exactly like the old phone without lens cap for camera (not as sexy as the new black European version). The phone has better battery life, better cellular reception, double RAM and A-GPS.

Nokia N-81 is a gaming phone based on N-Gage platform. Gaming and Music are the main focus of this phone and that why it has 8GB onboard memory. The phone has HSDPA (European band) support for online gaming and D-pad navigation. The phone comes with 2-megapixel camera and 3.5mm headphone jack. The 8GB internal memory version will cost you $599 and you can get 2GB removable microSD version for $499. The phone will be available in fourth quarter.

Nokia 5310 is a 9.9mm thick candy bar phone. The battery life for music playback is 18 hours. Other features on the phone are microSD slot (up to 4GB), QVGA screen and 3.5mm headphone jack. The phone will be available in fourth quarter for Euro 225 ($300). The second model 5610 is a slider phone with 2.2” QVGA screen, microSD slot (up to 4GB), 3.2-megapixel camera and up to 24 hours of battery life. The phone will cost Euro 300 ($400) when it available in fourth quarter.
Via Engadget

You know holiday season is coming when major electronic companies like Sony announces new products in bulk. Sony today announced 18 new LCD TV including three for J3000 series. The J3000 series comes in 20”, 26” and 30”. The Bravia has models ranging from 40” up to 70”. All models in Bravia series are full HD and have 10-bit LCD. The full Bravia line-up:

Samsung today updated their Q1 Ultra UMPC line with three new models. All the three models are based on Windows XP Tablet Edition and have 7” wide screen with split QWERTY keypad on both side of the screen. Samsung has increased the battery life to 4.5 hours and has used faster processors. The Q1U-ELXP is powered by 600MHz Intel A100 Ultra mobile processor and has 40 GB hard drive and will cost $999. The Q1UXP UMPC is powered by 800MHZ Intel A110 processor and has 60GB hard drive and will be priced at $1149. The Q1U-SSDXP has a 32GB Flash SSD drive and 800MHZ A110 processor and will cost $1649. All three models have 1GB DDR2 RAM, 802.11b/g and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR.

Creative has rolled out it new ZEN player which has 2.5” screen (320 X 240), FM tuner, Voice recorder and SD Expansion Slot. The ZEN will be available in 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacity and will cost $149, $199 and $299 respectively.  The audio formats supported by the player are MP3, WMA, WMA-DRM, AAC and Audible. The video formats supported are WMV, Divx, Xvid, MJPEG, and TIVO to GO (no H.264). The battery life is 25 hours for audio and 5 hours for video. I would like to advise everyone to wait till 5th September before they buy new MP3 player, that’s when the king of MP3 player market Apple will announce their new iPod line.

CrunchGear has posted today that a HTC insider has send them a tip about upcoming Goggle phone that will be released in first quarter of 2008. Goggle is refining its final handset design and the handset will work on its own OS and will have special version of Goggle Maps with GPS support. The phone will also have Gmail, calendar and Google Talk applications. Its still not very clear whether Google will release it on hardware or will it partner with some hardware maker like Samsung or HTC and just provide the software.

The T-Mobile HotSpot offer for PSP provides six months of complimentary HotSpot WiFi access to PSP owners. You should have the latest firmware version 3.3 on your PSP as it has the promotional credentials need to start this free service. This promotion will end on March 28, 2008 so PSP connecting for first time after that date will not receive this service.

For more information you can visit T-Mobile

The High-Definition Format war has reached to such an extent that both format groups want to choke each other to death. Yesterday Sony announced that when you buy PS3 through Amazon you will get three free Blu-ray titles with it and you could get five more free Blu-ray titles if you fill out rebate form with your choice of movies and send it before October 31st.  Within less then 24 hours there is another offer from HD-DVD side that is if you buy an Xbox 360 HD-DVD player from Amazon you will get three free HD-DVD titles with it and you could receive five more HD-DVD titles if you fill out the rebate form with your choice of movies and send it before October 31st. Even though Blu-ray is out selling HD-DVD by 2:1 it looks like HD-DVD want to fight till it dies. The bad news is that the longer the format war goes on; worst it will be for consumers.

Samsung will be releasing its two Europe only MP3 player in US. The first one YP-P2 is a 3” touchscreen player, which will be in direct competition to upcoming wide-screen iPod (rumored). The second device YP-T10 has a touch-sensitive controls and 2” screen. Samsung notes that a November firmware upgrade for both the devices will use the Bluetooth and microphone to serve as impromptu cell phone extension for answering calls without reaching for the phone itself. You can read the complete details and specification of the YP-P2 and YP-T10 here. Pricing of both the devices is yet not known but the devices will be available in September in black, purple and white colors.

The Casio Exilim EX-V8 has 8.1-megapixel sensor and 7X optical zoom. The Camera also offers four blur reduction technologies including a CCD shift image stabilization mechanism. The second camera Exilim EX-Z1080 has 10.1-megapixel sensor, 3x optical zoom and high ISO sensitivity of 6400. Both the Cameras have EXILIM Engine 2.0 that allows higher compression rates for H.264 videos. There is a YouTube capture mode also for shooting and saving movies optimized for YouTube. The EX-V8 will have a price of $329 and will be available in silver color and the EX-Z1080 will have a price of $279.99 and will be available in gray, black, blue and pink colors. Both the cameras will start shipping in September.

Ricoh rolled out their Wide-angel zoom (28-200mm) based Caplio R7 camera. The camera has 8.1-megapixel CCD sensor, 7X optical zoom, 1cm macro, ISO setting up to 1600 and 2.7” LCD. The camera has a new image-processing engine with vibration correction and face recognition technology. Caplio R7 is available for $350 in for colors silver, black, blue and orange.

The rumors have come true and Ars Technica’s Jacqui Cheng was perfectly right about the September 5th event. The invitation's picture clearly indicates that the event is going to be about iPod and iTunes. Now let the speculation begin about the new iPod line and which movie studio will join iTunes.

Via: Engadget & Gizmodo

There's definitely some magical disappearances noted on the Apple iTunes store. If you browse to the Movies section, the Coming Soon section is not visible anymore, which use to be part of MORE IN MOVIES menu at the end of the page. The Coming soon section usually features the movies that will be released on the iTunes store in the next 2 – 3 weeks. This just adds more fuel to the speculation that some other major movie houses like Sony Entertainment or Universal will be joining hands with the Cupertino company and have their movies available online after the rumored Sep 5th event. Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope the magic continues at Apple. The rumor mill is hot with the news of more movie companies joining Apple soon. An added bonus for our European counterparts is that Apple is also very likely to announce TV shows and Movies on European iTunes store very soon (may be Sept 5th).

UPDATE: TV shows now available on UK iTunes for pound 1.89 per episode. ABD, Disney, Nikelodeon, MTV, Paramount and Playhouse Disney are offering their shows.

According to AppleInsider “rumored September 5th special event that would bring new iPods is becoming increasingly likely”. The supplies of iPods have been extremely low at Apple’s dealerships, this is a strong sign that Apple is clearing its channel inventory before they launch the new line of iPods. Apple could also use the event to launch iTunes TV shows and Movies outside US. There is no concrete information on how many different iPod models will be released or whether any other product will be released but all indications are that Apple will have an event very soon and at least one new iPod model will be released.

Screen shots of Leopard and Video clip of the new start up movie have been posted over Internet. The movie is now removed from YouTube and you get a message “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Apple, Inc.”. The System Preferences panel has few changes like Dashboard and Expose panel is now called Expose and Spaces and quite a few icons are changed like Dock, Display and Sharing icons. You can see the System Preferences screen shot here. Other changes to the interface include a refined toolbar in Preview application and reduced transparency of the Mac OS menubar. Apple informed developers of nearly a dozen issues in Leopard that Apple hopes to take care before it is released. According to Amazon Leopard will ship on 31st October.

Dell today announced OptiPlex 755 desktop based on Intel vPro (also launched today). Dell dubbed the OptiPlex desktops as “ world’s most manageable, energy efficient commercial desktop ever,” the system has Energy Star 4.0 compliance and Gold rating for Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool. The desktops has Core 2 Duo with vPro technology, 256MB ATI Radeon HD 2400 graphics card and up to 8GB RAM. There are three different enclosures to choose from mini-tower, desktop and small form factor. Pricing starts from $642.

DIRECTV on Demand is in beta trials and soon will be available for Internet connected HR20’s. DIRECTV is using request/push model. The user requests a program, then the HR20 downloads that content via Internet and stores the download. Other details about the DIRECTV On Demand are:

Sony release first all-in-one PC/TV, which has Blu-ray burner, pullout sled for adding second hard drive and external ATI Digital Cable Tuner. The other feature on the $2899 all-in-one PC/TV are 22” widescreen LCD (1680 X 1050), 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo T7500 processor, 2GB DDR2 SDRAM, 500GB hard drive, 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GT graphics card, 802.11n, ATSC and NTSC TV tuner, 1.3-megapixel web cam and Vista Ultimate. If you don’t want to spend almost $3000 and still want all-in-one Windows based PC then you can go for VAIO LT15E, which comes with DVD burner, a slower CPU and other reduced specs. VAIO LT15E will cost $1899.

Intel today released their newest vPro technology for businesses and IT. The new vPro has the new Intel Core 2 Duo processor, Intel Q35 Express chipset and several security and management related enhancements. The new vPro has the ability to wake and repair a computer with an inoperative operating system or hard drive. The security features included in vPro are designed to protect against software-based attacks and also filter and defend against viruses and other threats. The new Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) protects data by keeping data in each virtual partition protected from unauthorized access from software in another partition. The improved System Defense Filters in vPro can identify greater numbers and varieties of threats in the network traffic flow. The Intel vPro also offers an embedded trust agent certified by Cisco. This trust agent offers Cisco’s IT customers the ability to mange systems, even if powered off or the OS is down without lowering the security on 802.1x network and Cisco Self-Defending Network products. Intel Active management Technology allows for inventory and repair PCs “out of band” meaning even if the OS has crashed or the PC is turned off. Intel vPro processor technology will be among the first to comply with the Distributed Management Task Force’s DASH 1.0 draft interoperability specification and Web Services Management. Dell, HP and Lenovo will start shipping their vPro based computers very soon.

You can read more about vPro on Ars Technica

Nokia announces four new Bluetooth accessories for mobile phone. The first one is Nokia Bluetooth GPS Module LD-4W, which is compatible with wide range of Nokia devices and Nokia Maps. The module has up to 10 hours of battery life and comes with a LED indicator to alert you to GPS activation, battery status and Bluetooth connectivity status. The GPS module will be available for Euro 125 ($170). The Second accessory is Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-903, which supports A2DP, AVRCP, PBAP, HFP and HSP Bluetooth profiles. It will be cost around Euro 200 ($272). The third is a Bluetooth Headset BH-902, which has an OLED display for managing calls. The battery life of the headset is about 8 hours and will cost around Euro 115 ($156). The last Bluetooth accessory is Bluetooth Speakers MD-7W, these small speakers have 3D stereo widening sound and dynamic bass control. There is a LED indicator for on/off, pairing mode and battery status. It will cost around Euro 130 ($177).
Nokia also released Power Pack DC-1, which is equivalent to three batteries in portable package. The DC-1 is compatible with Nokia 2mm charging interface, the power pack has two charge output cables so you can easily charge two devices at same time. It will be available for Euro 105 ($143).

If you wanted a MP3 player like the iPod Shuffle but with a screen, then SanDisk has  just answered your prayers with Sansa Clip. Sansa Clip is about the size of a matchbook and has an OLED screen. The player has FM tuner/recorder, voice recorder and support WMA, MP3, Audible and subscription content. The Sansa Clip will be available in two capacities, 1GB for $40 and 2Gb for $60. There will be four colors black, red, pink and blue.

Red has announced the dates for shipment of it first and second batch of Red One Ultra High-Definition Video Camera. The first batch will ship on August 31st and the second batch will ship on September 7th. High-end HD camcorders have 2.1-megapixel sensor and records 30 frames per second where as the Red One has a 12-megapixel sensor and records 60 frames per second. The modular and upgradeable design of Red One lets the  user upgrade new features, accessories and improve system specifications. The base system is available for $17,500.

You can learn more about this 4k-resolution camera here: Red One

The unofficial official shot of Palm’s new affordable PDA/phone Centro, in which the phone looks way better than those other leaked blurry photos. The device is rumored to be released in October for $99 and will be exclusive to Sprint for first 90 days. The device will support Sprint’s EV-DO network and is aimed towards young mobile phone users.  

In the consumer electronics market, the name Polaroid brings to mind  “instant photo cameras” but Polaroid is moving away from its roots and planning a range of electronic devices, which are affordable and easy to use. The first new device that Polaroid plans to release is a Personal Media Player that will works as a movie and music player as well as photo viewer. The device will come with 512MB memory and microSD card slot (supports up to 4GB card). The player will also have FM tuner, voice recorder and a battery life of up to 20 hours of music playback. The player size is 3.6” X 2.0” X 0.45” and has a 2.2” screen. The player will be around 99 pounds ($200).